Billie Barlow

Miss Tittell BruneThe photographic studio of Talma & co. was established in 1892 by Andrew Barrie and his business partner, Henry Weedon. Located in Swanston Street Melbourne, Talma was a leading portrait studio attracting clientele from ‘high society’, celebrities and visiting and local theatrical performers, especially women. As an astute businessman, Barrie saw a market beyond individual photographic portraits—establishing a product sideline of creating and selling black and white postcards of his famous female clients. For their part, actresses were keen to be involved in this new enterprise as it provided excellent exposure and the cards were also a way to attract new clients; for emerging young actresses to be seen on a Talma postcard was a boost to their careers. (see ‘Andrew Barrie and the Talma Studio’, Elisabeth Kumm, Theatre Heritage Australia, 7 December 2019—theatreheritage.org.au)

Not content with black and white images only, Barrie soon expanded his line to include colour cards; cards with portraits in decorative framing; and cards stylised with adornments and glitter. These latter elements, such as ‘gold’ hair clips and pins, jewellery and other decorative accessories along with embossed gowns were innovative and attractive—and can be seen on his postcards.

In the early 1900s the Melbourne-based manufacturing tobacconists Sniders and Abrahams accessed these images from Barrie to produce a set of cigarette cards—‘Actresses (Talma)’.

Cigarette Cards and Sniders and Abrahams

From their original point of sale, cigarettes were sold in flimsy paper packaging which provided little protection to the actual cigarette. In order to protect the cigarettes from damage, a stiff piece of cardboard was inserted into the packet to provide it with some structure. Soon after, cigarette companies saw this piece of cardboard as a useful advertising vehicle and over time more and more images of general interest—such as sporting figures, wartime heroes, and building and places of significance were added to ‘the cigarette cards’ to encourage (the mostly male) consumers to buy a particular cigarette brand.

Sniders and Abrahams was one prominent company who from around 1905 actively used ‘cigarette cards’ as an important marketing platform, and cards were issued with their ‘Standard’, ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Milo’ cigarette brands. Over its history, Sniders and Abrahams issued thirty-three card series—all of which are now highly collectable. One series was ‘Actresses (Talma)’ and on today’s values it is not unusual to pay up to $20 for a card in mint condition.

The company was established by partnership between Gershon Sniders and Lewis Abrahams and was originally located at 23 Lonsdale Street east, then 270 Lonsdale Street and with continued growth was later re-located to 7 Drewery Lane around 1910. In January 1885 the partnership was dissolved, however Abrahams continued the business and retained the name ‘Sniders and Abrahams’. Around 1889, Louis, son of Lewis, joined and managed the firm until his death in 1903.

Actresses (Talma)

‘Actresses (Talma)’ is generally agreed to be one of the finest cigarette card series issued by Sniders and Abrahams and as the title indicates, the cards are reproductions of Talma postcards and in some cases, Talma photographs which were never reproduced as postcards.

The ‘Actresses (Talma)’ cigarette cards were issued in two unnumbered series—one of 30 cards with a gold background (‘the 30 Card Set’) and one of 14 cards with a white border (‘the 14 Card Set’). On the front of each card the name of the actress is printed below the portrait at the base of the card. Interestingly, on some of the cards the names are incorrectly spelt, however for the purposes of this article they have been spelt correctly. 

The cards were included in the ‘Milo’ cigarette brand and were printed by the Melbourne firm, Osboldstone and Atkins (see back showing O&A) which would date the issue prior to 1908 (we know this date, as after 1908 Atkins was no longer involved and the firm became Osboldstone & Co). The cards measure 6.7 cm x 4.0 cm (compared to postcards 13.8 cm x 8.8 cm).

Miss Pressy Preston in summer dress and gold background

Miss Pressy Preston with white border

Of the 30 Card Set, four actresses appear twice—Miss Tittell Brune (with and without her dog), Miss Nellie Butler (head and shoulders and full length), Miss Pansy Montague (as a hussar and in evening gown) and Miss Pressy Preston (in fur coat and in summer dress). All of the 14 Card Set repeat an image from the 30 Card Set [including Brune (with dog), Butler (head and shoulders) and Preston (in summer dress)]—however the set includes a picture of the pianist Renee Lees which is not included in the 30 Card Set (for reasons unknown).

As cigarette card collectors would be aware, the ‘Actresses (Talma)’ series are an uncharacteristic issue for Sniders and Abrahams as their cards generally portrayed masculine imagery to appeal to their male based clientele; sporting and military cards were particularly favoured. By the early 1900s however, smoking by women was becoming more fashionable and less frowned upon in society and as such Sniders may have been responding to these changing social norms by producing a set which would also appeal to female smokers. Certainly, the mass production of theatrical postcards—mainly of actresses—in the early 1900s by Talma capitalised on the boom in postcard collecting as a hobby, particularly amongst women.  As such, the Sniders issue coincided with the postcard collecting craze - which was fortuitous. It is quite possible, however that the cards of ‘stage beauties’ were issued to appeal to the male ‘viewer’.

Of the many hundreds of actresses who appear on Talma postcards, what was so special about those who featured in the Sniders and Abrahams cigarette card sets? And, who made the selection? Was it Louis Abrahams, his wife Golda or his brother, Lawrence, all patrons of the arts and avid theatre goers or was the selection made by the photographer Barrie? And what were the commercial arrangement between Sniders and Abrahams and Barrie’s photographic studio? 

The Sniders sets feature both Australian and overseas performers and include the well-known English actress Ada Reeve who frequently performed in Australia; Maesmore Morris who was a much photographed beauty; the popular American Tittell Brune; Grace Palotta a regular visitor to Australia, together with the favourite local artists like the ageless Nellie Stewart, the audience favourite Florence Young, Pressy Preston and Pansy Montague to a handful of rising stars such as Carrie Moore and Daisy Holly.

It is interesting to suppose that while most of the subjects of the Cigarette Cards were included for their theatrical talent alone, it could be argued that some actresses were included for their ‘looks’ given the many contemporary media references to their ‘beauty’. Such subjects could include the likes of Eloise (Elise) Cook, Daisy Holly, Norah (Nora) Kerin, Renee Lees, Lillah McCarthy and Cerita.

The majority of the cards show head and shoulder portraits of the actresses, other than Pansy Montague, Billie Barlow, Elaine Ravensberg and one card of Nellie Butler who are shown in full length poses and in character costume. What also makes these four cards unique is that unlike the rest of the cards, there is no Talma Melbourne & Sydney logo in the bottom left or right-hand corner nor copyright on the opposite side. This is possibly because these four cards were either publicity photographs for a show or photographs for the press, and were not reproduced as postcards. Another oddity is the card of Miss Florence Young which is tagged ‘Talma Melbourne only’—as the Talma Studio in Sydney did not open until March 1899, Young’s portrait photograph would have been taken prior to this date.

A Brief Biographical Note on Selected Cards

One of the truly great overseas actresses included in the set is Ada Reeve, a British pantomime and vaudeville performer, and a star of numerous musical comedies and plays. Barrie would have taken the theatrical portrait of Reeve in costume in 1897 when Reeve appeared as Suzette in the Australian production of the French Maid at the Melbourne, Princess Theatre (Punch, 9 December 1897, p.10).

Miss Ada Reeve

Mrs Maesmore Morris

Another English actress is Mrs Maesmore Morris. She performed in Australia in numerous productions between 1897-1899, returned to the English stage until 1904, and back to Australia the same year. The card image was taken in late 1904 from her performance as George Anne Bellamy in Pretty Peggy, produced by Nellie Stewart’s comic opera company.

A youthful Australian actress is Carrie Moore who was Reeve’s understudy for Suzette. Later, Moore had the leading role in San Toy which opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne on 21 December 1901. The card image is of Moore as San Toy. After four years with the Royal Comic Opera Co., Moore travelled to London in 1903 where she soon became a favourite, with successful roles in San Toy (this time playing Dudley, the maid), The Blue Moon, Dairy Maids and Tom Jones. She also appeared in several pantomimes and was voted the most popular ‘principal boy’ in 1904. After an absence of five years she returned to Australia in 1908 for the lead role in The Merry Widow.

Another Australian to feature is Daisy Holly, a talented dancer. She was a member of Williamson’s Juvenile Comic Opera Co. and in 1891 appeared in the opera La Mascotte as Frascello.  She was much in demand as a dancer and was the ‘premiere danseuse’ of the Macmahon Pantomime Company before travelling overseas. She received accolades as one of the Debutantes in the Orchid at the London Gaiety Theatre in 1903. The photograph of Holly which appears on the Sniders card was most likely taken in the late 1890s as it appears as a study piece in ‘Studies by Talma & Co.’, Melbourne and Sydney, published by Atlas Press, Melbourne in 1900.  Frequently described in the media as one of the ‘prettiest women’ on the Australian stage and the ‘little ballet beauty’.

Miss Carrie Moore

Miss Daisy Holly

May Beatty was the principal star with the George Stephenson’s Musical Comedy Co. The card image is of her as Rose of the Riviera in the production of the same name.  Performances were held at several venues, including Melbourne’s Princess Theatre in July 1904.

Norah (also known as Nora) Kerin made her name as a Shakespearean actress and toured Australia in 1903/04 as a member of George Musgrove’s English Shakespearean Company with leading roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. She returned to England in early 1904 so her portrait photo, not in costume, most likely dates from 1903. Her inclusion in the Sniders set is odd, given her limited exposure to Australian audiences—but perhaps (as noted earlier) it was due to her beauty with Kerin described as ‘the youngest and most beautiful Shakespearean actress on stage’.

Miss May Beatty

Miss Eloise Cook

Miss Norah Kerin

Another stage ‘beauty’ was Eloise (also known as Elise) Cook, a young English soprano on stage in Australia in 1900/01 under engagement to George Musgrove to play the principal girl role in the Cinderella pantomime at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre and the Theatre Royal in Sydney. The cigarette card image is Cook as Cinderella in her Fair Scene dress. She was variously described in press reviews as a ‘charming young actress’, ‘as pretty as a picture to look at…’, a winsome, pretty little lady’ and ‘of course there is always pretty little Cinderella herself; she is a very nice little girl’.

Delia Mason was a British musical comedy actress and vocalist who toured Australia in 1904 with the New London Gaiety Company and performed in Three Little Maids, Kitty Grey and The Girl from Kay’s. The card image shows her as Edna in The Three Little Maids.

Miss Delia Mason

Miss Renee Lees

A lesser known performer who appeared only in the 14 Card Set is Renee Lees, a gifted young Australian pianist. Lees performed at the Opera House in Wellington, New Zealand before she left Australia for Europe in late 1899 to continue her musical studies and while still a teenager made a successful London debut in May, 1900. After a short stint as a dancer with the John F. Sheridan’s musical comedy company, Lees returned to perform as a pianist and organist around mid-1903—at which time her Talma portrait may have been taken.

One the actresses in a full-length pose is Billie Barlow, a popular burlesque artiste, shown on the card as the Prince—the principal boy—in Rickard’s production of the pantomime Puss in Boots held at the Sydney Tivoli Theatre (see Punch, 27 December 1900, p.25). Her costume shown on the card was the subject of a famous theatrical libel action in April 1901, when Barlow sued the Bulletin for £5000 for alleged libel contained in a review of her appearance which suggested that she was ‘wandering about … clothed in her naked soul’, the insinuation being that she appeared in a costume that was indecent. The defence offered no evidence to refute this and after an hour’s deliberation the Jury found for the Bulletin.

Nellie Butler is also shown in a full-length pose. Butler was an American actress who performed in the Royal Comic Opera Co. production of A White Milk Flag at the Melbourne Princess Theatre in October 1896 where she played the role of the Captain (of the Corps). The Talma photo of Butler in costume for this role was published in the Melbourne Punch (15 October 1896, p.3), which is the image that appears on the cigarette card. Also, in a full-length pose is Elaine Ravensberg who arrived from England in December 1904 under engagement to William Anderson to play the principal boy, Sinbad in the pantomime Sinbad the Sailor and her card shows her in costume for this role (see Talma photo of same image in the Sunday Times (Sydney), 26 February 1905, p.3). Ravensberg had previously played the principal boy in several British pantomimes.

Miss Billie Barlow

Miss Nellie Butler

Miss Elaine Ravensberg

Less biographical success was met in sourcing the two cards of Pansy Montague—with no reference found for the image of her in an evening gown or for the card of her dressed as a Hungarian soldier (although there is a photo of her in the same costume in Table Talk of 13 August 1903, where the caption refers to the Princess Theatre but not the play or the role she played). In an earlier Table Talk (9 July 1903) there is a photo of Madame Slapoffski, dressed as a hussar in a like fashion for her leading role in The Fortune Teller. The article does mention that Montague appeared in this production as a servant to the Lord Mayor, but there is no explanation as to why she was dressed as a black hussar in the August edition photograph—perhaps she was the understudy to the lead role?

Miss Pansy Montague dressed as a hussar

Miss Pansy Montague in evening dress

Lastly, described in the media as ‘the most beautiful woman on the English stage’, Lillah McCarthy visited Australia in 1901 as the leading lady of Wilson’s Barrett’s London Company. During the season she appeared in Man and His Makers, The Sign of the Cross, Virginius and The Manxman.  The card shows her as Kate Cregreen in The Manxman performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne in August 1901.

In researching this article, every attempt was made to match the card image to a particular theatrical performance and role played by the actress, or with a photograph taken by the Talma studio. This also allowed for a more precise issue date for the Sniders cigarette cards, rather than the 1904-08 range of years quoted in various references. The one card which appears to assist in clarifying the issue date is that of Cerita (Ada Cerito) a lesser known English actress who arrived in Australia in late 1905 and first appeared at Rickard’s Opera House in mid-December as a comedian, serio comique and character actress. It is unlikely that her portrait was taken at this time (see the Herald, advertisement, 19 December 1905, p.2) due to her hectic schedule. Her photograph by Talma, which became the postcard and cigarette card image, appeared in the Gadfly, 14 February 1906, p.10, which would date the Sniders issue at 1906 at the earliest.

Miss Lillah McCarthy

Cerita

The actresses shown on the Sniders and Abrahams cigarette cards were outstanding theatrical entertainers, performing at a time when live theatre was at the height of its popularity. A handful of the actresses have been singled out for comment, but they and the others in the set deserve much more than the few lines given to them in this article.

My thanks to Elisabeth Kumm, Theatre Heritage Australia for information on many of the actresses and for making time available for several conversations.

All cards are from the author's collection with the exception of Carrie Moore and Elaine Ravensberg.

Vocalist. Né Robert Barlow. Died 17 February 1907, Gympie, NSW, Australia, aged 87.

 Best remembered for his song 'Blue Tail Fly', which he sang before audiences in Australia, China and Europe.

Riley/Hailes Scrapbook, page 54.

In my childhood in England in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the golden years of music hall were already long gone. Of course there were vestiges that remained―occasionally on the wireless, more regularly at pantomimes and in ‘variety’ shows at still-functioning end-of-the-pier theatres. These featured former stars of the post-First World War decline. Then at the start of the 1960s came Joan Littlewood’s Oh! What a Lovely War, which debunked the nationalistic patriotism which drove so many young men to sign up and give their lives so unceremoniously. It was packed full of music hall songs, several of them popularised by Florrie Forde.¹ 

Young Florrie FordeWhile from a young age getting to know so many of Florrie’s songs, I had no idea that she was Australian―although in fact she had featured her origins strongly in her initial years in Britain before the turn of the century. Nor did I realise that she had been such a major star and that she performed continuously between her debut in Sydney in 1892 and her death in Scotland in 1940―just two years short of a half-century on the stage.

Florrie Forde was born Flora Flannagan, probably at 88 (now 122) Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne, on 16 August 1875. Her father, (Francis) Lott Flannagan, was previously a stonemason but by then a publican, born in Ireland.² And in Florrie’s birth certificate, her mother Phoebe Cahill (née Simmons) is said to have been born in the USA. Before Flannagan, whom she married in Melbourne in 1876, Phoebe had been married to Daniel James Cahill (since 1861). With Cahill she had several children, then Lott and Phoebe together had a further nine, only four of whom survived beyond early childhood (Emily b.1868, Francis b.1872, Hannah (Nan) b.1874, Flora b.1875). Flora, the last of the survivors, was named after a sister who had predeceased her.

While her first two husbands were of Irish heritage, Phoebe herself seems to have been Jewish, born in 1846 the daughter of Barnett Simmons and Susan Solomans. Her relationship with Lott Flannagan seems to have been over by the end of the 1870s and in 1883 she married for a third time, declaring herself to be Phoebe Cahill (although Lott Flannagan was still alive―by that time living as a publican in Sydney―and possibly Daniel Cahill too). This time she married a Melbourne-based theatrical and society costumier, Thomas Henry Snelling Ford, who was to take over in 1888 his stepfather’s business (Ford and Son) in Russell Street, Melbourne. Phoebe and Thomas were to have more offspring. While Thomas had a ‘proper job’ in Melbourne, he also moonlighted, playing the banjo in the music halls.³ He also played other stringed instruments―fiddles (which he made) and zithers among them.

That her stepfather played on the halls seems not to have been noticed until recently and it is important in that it will have provided Flora with a practical introduction to the genre. From the start of her performing career, she styled herself Florrie Ford (after her stepfather but initially without an e, which was to be added within six months).

Florrie says that she first went to school at St Peter’s (presumably Eastern Hill), then at St Mary’s Convent (Carlton Gardens). She emphasises that the ‘family’ was as many as nineteen (including all the surviving children of Phoebe’s three marriages) and it has been suggested that several of them (including Flora) were ‘parked out’, so the convent, taking boarders, looks a good bet. And the costumier’s business will have generated the necessary fees.

Florrie will most likely have left school at fourteen―and she writes that she then spent time in her stepfather’s costumier business in Russell Street, where she learned to design dresses―a skill she took into her future performing career.

Clearly, she showed real promise as a singer from childhood. She wrote:

Once I had heard a song I seemed to record the tune in my memory with the precision of a phonograph record.

She described her young voice as contralto, but her mother, having risen in the world, did not see ‘actress’ in her talented daughter’s future. Phoebe insisted that she learn the piano, but Florrie hated it and stopped. ‘Singing made me happy’, she declared.

It is interesting that her first public performances (at 14–15) were to sing for her stepfather’s marionette theatre (another of his talents).

In the latter part of 1891 Florrie left home in Melbourne at just fifteen, travelling to Sydney, intent on a career in the music halls, where she stayed with her older sister Nan (Hannah), recently married to Navy man Alfred Tiltman in Melbourne. Nan and Alfred later transferred to live at the Devonport naval base in southwest England and she and Florrie were to remain close until she died there at 38 in 1912.⁴ 

Apprenticeship in Australia

Florrie Forde spent the first five years of her performing life (aged 16 to 21) ―all of it in Australia―fundamentally learning her trade. These years were mainly spent in seasons of three to six months, alternating between Sydney and Melbourne, with one season each in Brisbane and Adelaide, before travelling to try her luck in London. The majority of these engagements were as a music hall singer―one of a list of performers including all sorts of vaudeville entertainers―appreciated by audiences and critics but rarely headlining. Then Florrie extended her experience―as a singing actress in pantomime and musical comedy.

While much of our knowledge of Florrie’s performing career, both in Australia and in Britain, comes from contemporary newspaper reports, she also wrote a series of memoir pieces for publications, the most wide-ranging of them being ‘My Life Story’, told on a weekly basis in seven parts for Thomson’s Weekly News from 16 February 1916. Particularly revealing are the parts dealing with her early performing years in Australia.

While music hall in Britain had grown up in the second half of the nineteenth century in venues principally developed from pubs, in Australia, it had followed suit, but mostly was situated in theatres with proscenium arches. As a consequence, while every town and city in Britain, indeed many suburbs, had a music hall, in Australia it was mostly confined to the major metropolises.⁵ 

Many reports on the early performances of Florrie Ford (without the e) have 1 February 1892 as the date of her debut – at the Polytechnic Music Hall underneath the Imperial Arcade in Pitt Street, Sydney―and this was the occasion put out in her lifetime in press reports. Yet by the beginning of February that year, Florrie had already performed (from 9 November 1891) with Arthur Gordon’s Grand Variety Entertainments in the ‘middle of Sydney Harbour’ on the SS Alathea. She was one of twenty ‘artistes’ providing entertainment as they went on a ‘grand trip round the harbour’.

In Sydney, young Florrie was most impressed by the English burlesque actress Billie Barlow, learning to imitate her songs and even her walk. Around the same time, Florrie was introduced to (and auditioned with) the Canadian dancer-impresario, Dan Tracey, who gave her a job as a ‘chair-warmer’, a chorus girl, in Tracey’s company at the School of Arts, Pitt Street. This was to turn into a real solo booking with Tracey some months later.

Florrie’s debut at the Polytechnic was not on 1 February 1892, but in fact six weeks earlier (Saturday 19 December 1891), when she sang a ‘serio-comic’ song, ‘Don’t you believe it’―a ‘great attraction’―and later a duet as the Ford Sisters (‘Florrie and Carrie’), ‘See us dance the polka’.⁶ Was ‘Carrie’ her sister Nan, who later in England was a dance teacher, or someone else entirely? Someone else, says Florrie, but who?⁷ 

Florrie Forde with her sister, Photo by Stewart and Co, Melbourne

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

‘See me dance the polka’

At the supposed Polytechnic debut on Saturday I February, Florrie sang with Amy Olive, together as the Bowery Sisters (no more Ford Sisters, it seems), but in fact she also made another debut on the Sunday―with Steve Adson’s promenade concert at the Port Jackson Pavilion at Chowder Bay.⁸ For one shilling, the customers were ferried to that bay, together with a brass band on board, the concert itself being free. In order to ward off the wowsers, these Sunday concerts were labelled ‘Sacred and Classical’ and Florrie was to be a featured performer at them through the following months until early June, while continuing on Saturdays, a ‘great favourite’ with the Polytechnic. Again, on Sundays in early June, Florrie sang in the ‘Sacred and Classical Concerts’ at the Centennial Hall in Walker Street, North Sydney.

However, learning of her daughter’s theatrical exploits in Sydney, Florrie’s mother was devastated and sent Florrie’s brother (was this Francis?) up to Sydney to persuade her to cease and desist before bringing the family into disrepute. According to Florrie, mother thought of theatre folk as ‘poor lost souls, not fit for the society of respectable, decent folk.’ Florrie went home immediately to Melbourne in order to try to persuade Phoebe, and ‘[mother] bravely determined to cast aside all her foolish prejudices’, and be proud of her daughter’s success, if that were to come.

At some point that year, Florrie reports, she was approached by the American co-leader of the Montague-Turner Opera Company, impresario and tenor Charles Turner, who had heard Florrie sing and tried to persuade her to abandon the music hall stage and join his opera company. The Montague-Turner company was regularly on tour through Australia and New Zealand, always seeming to be short on resources, human and financial. Florrie turned him down.

While Florrie was back in Sydney, her mother Phoebe died at forty-six at her home with Thomas Ford in Bourke Street.⁹ Unreported in the Australian press, Florrie performed in a minor role (as a fairy) with Billie Barlow in June 1892 at Her Majesty’s in Sydney in the pantomime-burlesque Randolph the Reckless.¹⁰  This was produced by George Rignold, who was to play such a crucial role in Florrie’s development as a singing actor in 1894–95.

The young Florrie Forde

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Billie Barlow, 1892, photo by Falk/H. Walter Barnett

Pantomime was to become a major factor in Florrie’s career, although in the future always in lead roles. Born in London in 1863, Billie Barlow had made her name in the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan in London and New York before touring in Australia (in musical comedy, pantomime and music hall) three times―initially in 1891–93. Florrie was so besotted by Barlow that she took care of Billie’s wigs through the run of Randolph and its successors.

Florrie performed at the Gaiety until mid-August. In late June of 1892, Florrie returned to Melbourne to perform, booked to headline at the Gaiety Theatre with Dan Tracey’s company, opening on Monday 27 June.

On 10 September, Florrie was back in Sydney, this time with Dan Tracey’s other Gaiety company (at the School of Arts in Pitt Street). As before, Florrie juggled two employers―performing for Tracey in the week, while on Sundays going to sing at the Coogee Aquarium, an arrangement that continued through to March 1893. At Coogee, Florrie sang with the Alabama Minstrels ‘in her male impersonations and in her original character “Bubbles”’.

Florrie was married on 2 February 1893 to Walter Bew, an English-born water policeman, at the Mariner’s Church on the Rocks in Sydney. In the New South Wales official register of marriages, Florrie gave her name as Flora Flanagan. And the event was reported in the Free Lance newspaper in Melbourne three years later (on 30 April 1896). They seem not to have co-habited for any length of time, if at all, and the marriage was not mentioned in Florrie’s memoirs of 1916.¹¹ 

There was a special benefit at the Opera House in Sydney (corner King and York Streets) on Friday 3 March 1893 for the manager of the Vaudeville Minstrel and Specialty Company, Alf Hazlewood, featuring some 70+ performers, ‘six shows in one’ according to the advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald, but in the event, it was Florrie who particularly caught the attention of the Evening News’s reporter:

Miss Florrie Forde sang a witty topical song full of allusions to our late Governor and political situation.

The late Governor of New South Wales was the genial Earl of Jersey, recently returned to London after a somewhat uneventful governorship.

In April Florrie switched to the new vaudeville company at the Alhambra Music Hall (George Street Haymarket), with whom she was to perform over a six-month period until September. Many of the songs she sang at the Alhambra were noted as winners, among them: ‘The Wrong Man’ (sung in England by Marie Lloyd), ‘Oh! Mr Chevalier’, ‘Dear Little Girls’, ‘One of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Life’s Highway’ (sung by Jenny Hill in England). 

By October 1893 Florrie was back in Melbourne with the Alhambra Palace of Varieties at the Opera House. The Lorgnette noted: ‘Miss Florrie Forde at the Alhambra is a worthy successor of Miss Billie Barlow on the Melbourne stage.’

On 21 November, The Sportsman, reported on Florrie’s progress in Melbourne:

There may be nothing very elaborate in the music of ‘After the Ball’, but no one can deny that it is ‘catchy’, very catchy. Since Miss Florrie Forde sang it at the Alhambra Theatre all the lads are whistling it―a sure sign of popularity.

The Melbourne public’s response to ‘After the Ball’ was a sign of things to come for Florrie Forde. Composed by Charles K. Harris, it had been published in America the previous year and is said to have sold over a million copies of the sheet music. She was to record it in London forty-one years later (in 1934).

‘After the Ball’

Harry Rickards

Florrie returned to Sydney in January 1894, this time, for the first time, to perform at Harry Rickards’s Tivoli Theatre. Florrie was introduced in publicity in the Sydney Morning Herald as a ‘serio-comic and descriptive singer and impersonator’, terms not so easy to uncode at this distance, but serio-comic was a regular descriptor for singers who were said to combine (as the phrase implies) the weighty with the humorous.

Born in London in 1843, Harry Rickards was initially a comic singer in the London music halls before travelling to perform successfully in Australia for the first time in 1871. He returned to London in 1876, where he built a reputation as a ‘lion comique’. He was back in Australia in 1885, where in 1893 he was to purchase the Garrick Theatre in the Haymarket, renaming it the Tivoli and establishing himself as its impresario. From 1894 until the time Florrie left Australia for London, Rickards was to be a major influence on her career.

Florrie continued with his company at the Tivoli in Sydney until June 1894 and, as they did not open on Sundays, she returned to perform on those days at the Coogee Aquarium. On 30 April the Tivoli company went to the Theatre Royal in Brisbane, giving a one-off benefit there for Florrie. The Brisbane event was some kind of try-out and Florrie was to return to the Theatre Royal there for a season a year later (opening on Monday 1 April 1895).

In August 1894 Florrie moved on from the Rickards company at the Tivoli to open with Harry Barrington’s Variety and Burlesque Company at the School of Arts in Pitt Street, remaining there through September and early October, before returning to Melbourne with the Cogill Brothers company at the Oxford Theatre.

However, in December 1894 Florrie for the first time took a major role as a singing actress ― in a Christmas pantomime at Her Majesty’s Theatre (at that time Sydney’s finest)―George Rignold’s The House that Jack Built with Florrie as Jack (the first of many Principal Boys to come). In the cast was a soprano who was to become a regular performer with Florrie both in Australia and England―Melbourne-born soprano Florence Esdaile (a pupil of Lucy Chambers). The role was a breakthrough for Florrie―treating her for the first time as a star commodity―and complimentary cabinet photos of her in role were offered to patrons. Reviewing the opening night (22 December), the Australian Star wrote:

Miss Florrie Forde sang and acted splendidly as Jack, and when she had anything to say she spoke her lines well. Miss Forde has a powerful voice and every item she rendered during the interpretation of a very severe part was encored.

George Rignold was a Birmingham-born Shakespearean actor who had been involved in the building of Her Majesty’s Theatre in Sydney in 1887―and was the lessee and impresario until 1895. Florrie was able, working with him on theatrical productions, to develop her nascent acting skills. She also befriended the famous English actress Kate Bishop, who was temporarily retired from the stage in order to bring up her talented young daughter Marie Lohr.¹² Bishop designed Florrie’s costume as Jack.

George Rignold

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

The young Marie Lohr, 1903, photo by H. Walter Barnett

Following the pantomime, she was retained to perform in a double bill at Her Majesty’s in February 1895: the drama Black Eyed Susan by Douglas Jerrold, followed by a burlesque, Susan with Two Lovely Black Eyes. In the drama George Rignold played the seaman William, a role he had acted extensively in London, while Florrie was to play the same role in the burlesque. The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

Miss Florrie Forde’s confidence and aplomb enabled her to act cheerily and well as William, and she was very properly encored for the rattling song (with chorus), ‘At Four O’Clock in the Morning’.

However, the Herald critic’s praises did not extend to Florrie’s singing: ‘… she must learn to modulate her voice and to sing from the head, as the chest fortissimo throughout an entire piece is apt to become monotonous.’ Was this the first negative feedback for Florrie on her vocal capabilities? And perhaps the last? It was certainly not something she took to heart, her many later recordings being dominated by her distinctive chest voice.

Around February/March 1895 rumours started to circulate (doubtless prompted by her) that Florrie was planning to ‘go home’―to try her luck in London. In the event, two years were to pass before she was to leave, the months filled with more performing work, principally in Sydney and Melbourne, but also taking a season each in Brisbane and Adelaide.

She opened on Monday 1 April 1895 at the Theatre Royal in Brisbane with the Concert Variety and Ballad Company, the season running for some six weeks. One of her colleagues there was a singer with a famous five-octave range (contralto-mezzo-soprano extending up to top F), Ada Colley. Born at Parramatta, and with a career that started in opera but migrated to the music hall, Ada made the journey to England a few months before Florrie, in January 1897. 

Ada Colley

Florence Esdaile

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

In May and June 1895 Florrie sang with Frank M. Clark’s Empire Company at the Bijou Theatre in Melbourne, but by the end of June she had returned to Sydney and Harry Rickards’s company at the Tivoli, where a colleague was Florence Esdaile again. In October she moved with Rickards’s Tivoli company to his Melbourne theatre, the Opera House.

That Christmas, Florrie took a major role with Charles B Westmacott’s company at the Theatre Royal in Sydney as a Gaiety Girl in Pat, or the Bells of Rathbeal―not so much a panto, more a musical comedy―the score originating from half a dozen different composers, the play by Harry Monkhouse. This extended her skills as an actress once more and led on to more theatrical work with that company, Florrie taking the role of Jenny Wibbles, a coster girl, in The Work Girl, a melodrama with songs from London, which was followed by The Enemy’s Camp, where she had a smaller role, Clairette. The latter transferred in April to the Theatre Royal in Melbourne. The dancing in both shows was choreographed and led by Beanie Galletly (wife of baritone Hamilton Hill), who was to become a close friend and business associate of Florrie in England.

In the remaining ten months before she embarked for London, Florrie worked continuously in Harry Rickards’s Tivoli companies―in Melbourne, touring in Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, then Sydney and then (with Wybert Reeve’s company) at the Theatre Royal in Adelaide. On Tuesday 22 December 1896 there was a Tivoli benefit for Florrie at the Opera House in Melbourne, the star attraction (aside from her) being the ‘White Eyed Kaffir’, G.H. Chirgwin. Born in London in 1854, Chirgwin was a star performer, combining the black-faced minstrel fashion with cockney material. He and Florrie performed on the same Tivoli bill in Melbourne and Sydney through January to early March.

G.H. Chirgwin

SS Gulf of Bothnia

Her apprenticeship complete, it seems that Florrie left Australia (from Sydney or Melbourne?) in the second half of March 1897. She had been encouraged to take this step both by Rickards and by Chirgwin. She tells us that she sailed on the Gulf of Bothnia, mainly a cargo ship with a handful of passengers, arriving in London on 19 May 1897. As Australian poet Victor Daley put it:

They leave us – artists, singers, all―
When London calls aloud,
Commanding to her Festival
   The gifted crowd.¹³

What would the future hold for Florrie Forde?

Getting established in Britain (and Ireland)

While the exodus of talented Australians―principally to London, but also to Paris, Leipzig, Vienna and elsewhere in Europe―had been going on for decades, with musicians and singers, artists and writers, the flood increased dramatically after Nellie Melba’s triumph in 1887 in Brussels. Among them were other pupils of Mathilde Marchesi in Paris, including Frances Saville, Amy Sherwin, Ada Crossley, Amy Castles, Florence Young, Frances Alda and Evelyn Scotney; plus pupils of other singing teachers in Paris and London, including Lalla Miranda, Margherita Grandi, Peter Dawson and Walter Kirby; among pianists, the best went to Leschetizky in Vienna, the finest violinists to Ševčík in Prague.

But Australian singers who came to ply their trade in Europe were not solely working in the opera houses and concert halls. Many were clearly destined for the more egalitarian music halls, which were overwhelmingly located in Britain.

The Australians who rose to stardom in British music halls in the first decade of the new century included comic singers Albert Whelan and Billy Williams, the ‘living statue’ La Milo (Pansy Montague), champion swimmer Annette Kellermann, ‘the world’s greatest liar’ Louis de Rougemont and (above them all) Florrie Forde.

La Milo, photo by Bassano, London

Louis de Rougemont, 1898, photo by H. Walter Barnett

But there were also classically-trained Australian singers who, unable to get regular work in classical venues in Britain, turned successfully to the halls, including Alice Hollander, L’Incognita (Violet Mount) and baritone Hamilton Hill, and four others who had performed with Florrie on bills in Australia―Syria Lamonte, Ada Colley, Florence Esdaile and her sister Stella Esdaile, all sopranos. Many of them were to feature in Britain on the same bills as Florrie.¹⁴

Florrie carried with her on the voyage to London a letter of introduction to Mr Charles Morton. Morton, often called ‘the father of the halls’ had transformed the Canterbury Arms in Westminster Bridge Road into a music hall in 1852-54, later taking over the Palace Theatre at Cambridge Circus.¹⁵ His programs were by earlier pub standards high quality and Morton introduced ballet and opera into his bills.

Charles Morton

Not wasting time, Florrie went to see Morton the Monday after she landed and had an audition with him at the Palace two weeks later. Unusually, performing for an audience of one, Florrie was afflicted with stage-fright. But Morton reassured her and asked her to start again. He liked her but was clear that her style was not suited to his theatres and she should go try her luck with ‘syndicate halls’.

She did just that and was about to audition with Harry Lundy, when Harry Rickards, on one of his regular trips from Australia, met up with Lundy and was surprised to learn that he was about to audition Florrie. ‘Is she any good?’ Lundy wanted to know. Any good? ‘She’s the Marie Lloyd of Australia,’ said Rickards. The outcome was that Florrie was given a contract at £8 a turn, starting with an opening night in London at three different ‘syndicate’ halls on the evening of August Bank Holiday.

Previously published summaries of the performing career of Florrie Forde assert that she made her debut in London on Monday 2 August 1897 (August Bank Holiday) at three different music hall venues in the capital―the South London Palace, the London Pavilion and the Oxford. And this is indeed the case. But not mentioned is that she had performed through the previous month in Britain―first at Oswald Stoll’s Empire Theatre in Cardiff (from 2 July) and then (from 10 July) at the Star Palace of Varieties at Barrow-in-Furness in the far north-west of England.

Oswald Stoll

Harry Lauder

Of her Cardiff debut, the Music Hall and Theatre Review reported that it had been an unusual evening. The audience ‘could not cease applauding … there was more applause on Monday than I have ever heard at Mr Stoll’s splendid hall.’ And he/she went on to note:

Florrie Forde, an Australian vocalist, sang a couple of songs in capital style, they were catchy songs, and the refrains were taken up most enthusiastically.

On the same bill in Cardiff was the celebrated Scottish singer-comedian Harry Lauder. The Era reported more modestly that the audience at Barrow had given Florrie a ‘flattering reception’. Altogether a highly encouraging start to Florrie’s new life in Britain―and with her famous three London debuts in one evening yet to come.

The three London debuts on August Bank Holiday 1897 were: the London Pavilion (on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street at Piccadilly Circus) with Dan Leno, James Fawn and Vesta Victoria; the Oxford (corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road (again with Dan Leno); and the South London Palace (London Road, Lambeth). Two venues in the heart of the West End of London (theatreland) and one in Cockneyland. All went well. The Daily Telegraph reported on her turn at the Oxford:

Miss Florrie Forde from Australia … has a fascinating appearance, good enunciation and a finished style.

The Oxford Music Hall, Oxford Street

The London Pavilion, Piccadilly Circus

An accolade for the still twenty-one-year-old. In reality, Florrie had a cold and was afraid that she would be unable to perform, something that doesn’t happen in Australia, according to her. Anyway, ‘cold or no cold, they gave me a good reception.’ It must have been good enough as Florrie was given a five-year contract with the Moss and Stoll circuits.

She continued at the three London music halls through August and September before opening on the south coast at the Empire Theatre in Brighton, returning to the capital in October, this time to Norton’s Canterbury Theatre, south of the river on Westminster Bridge Road. On the same bill at the Canterbury were G.H. Chirgwin, the White-Eyed Kaffir (who had encouraged her move to London when they performed together in Australia), comedian R.G. Knowles (who will have seen Florrie perform there), Charles Godfrey and the young George Robey. Alongside the Canterbury, Florrie also appeared at the Paragon Theatre in the Mile End Road in the East End of London.

Florrie’s re-acquaintance with R.G. Knowles was fortuitous in that he agitated on her behalf, recommending her for the pantomime he was about to appear in at Birmingham. However, this was not to be―Moss and Stoll held her to her contract with their music halls―so she had to wait a year before making her debut in Britain in pantomime.

Several of the London halls that Florrie had performed in between August and November 1897 were controlled by ‘the syndicate’, managed by George Adney Payne (1846–1907)―the London Pavilion, the Oxford, the South London Palace, the Metropolitan, the Canterbury and the Paragon in the Mile End Road.

George Adney Payne

Well-established by this time in London, Florrie returned to major regional cities, opening first in late November in Liverpool at the New Empire Theatre in Lime Street (owner Edward Moss) with coster comedian Gus Elen, followed by Glasgow (with her Australian colleague Florence Esdaile), Newcastle, Hull, Sheffield and Birmingham.

At the end of January 1898, Florrie came back to London, again appearing at several music halls―the Hammersmith Theatre of Varieties, the London Pavilion (again), the Oxford (again), the Metropolitan (in the Edgware Road, Paddington) with the great Marie Lloyd, and the London Theatre at Shoreditch with Katie Lawrence.

Marie Lloyd

Gatti’s Hungerford Palace of Varieties: Second Turn of Miss Katie Lawrence, Walter Sickert, 1887-88

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 

Altogether Florrie Forde’s first six months in Britain had started with a bang and had steadily built her reputation as a promising top-flight music hall artist, both in London and in several major towns and cities of England and Wales. In a piece that was to foreshadow so much of Florrie Forde’s emerging career, the Echo in London (on 11 March), reviewing her recent appearances, observed:

This week at the Oxford she celebrates on the virtues of the worker’s daughter. The song in question is unambitious, but it boasts of a good chorus. And Miss Florrie sings it with gusto, and in her blue tights makes as gallant a figure as Miss Harriet Vernon.¹⁶ 

In the remaining months of the century―from April 1898―Florrie established a pattern that was to serve her well going forward. She toured outside London for several months, followed by months back in the capital, where she performed nightly at three or even four halls. And over the Christmas season, she was ‘principal boy’ in a major pantomime either in London or in the regions.

In April she made her debut in Scotland at the Empire Palace in Edinburgh (with the famous beauty Lily Langtry, a mistress of the Prince of Wales, also on the bill),¹⁷ followed by Empire Theatres at Newcastle and Liverpool (with Langtry again), and Empire Palaces at Sheffield and Birmingham. All of these theatres were part of the burgeoning provincial network run by Edward Moss.

Back in London in May, Florrie made a return south of the Thames to the Canterbury, where a star-studded cast included Dan Leno, Lily Langtry and her Australian compatriot Florence Esdaile. On the same nights she was at the Tivoli (with Leno, Vesta Tilley, Eugene Stratton, George Robey and the ‘Jersey Lily’), and at the Paragon in the Mile End Road and (later) the London in Shoreditch. Of Florrie at the Paragon, the Era reported:

Miss Florrie Forde, looking very handsome in a principal boy’s costume, sang in an interesting fashion of the humble love of a coster, of a girl who is quite good enough for him.

At the turn of the century, the infinite gradations of the British class system were still being rehearsed in East End music halls. Notices in newspapers started to appear regularly stating that Florrie was fully booked until 1900.

In mid-August, Florrie left London again, briefly this time, for more Empire theatres belonging to Moss―at Nottingham and Cardiff (where she had made her UK debut), But in September she was back in London at the three theatres where she had made her London debut: the Oxford, the South London and the London Pavilion. Sharing the bill with her was a galaxy of music hall stars, including Dan Leno, George Robey, Charles Coborn, and two she had previously shared the bill with, in Australia, Billie Barlow and G.H. Chirgwin.

Remaining in London in October, Florrie performed with Marie Lloyd at the Collins, and also at the Metropolitan in Edgware Road, before leaving for the Palace Theatre at Manchester and the Empire Palace at Leeds. Booked for the first time in Britain as principal boy for a major pantomime, Cinderella, at the Shakespeare Theatre in Clapham, she started rehearsals in mid-December, where she was to be ‘sprightly and charming’.

Cinderella at the Shakespeare

The South London Press, 28 January 1899, p.5

However, Cinderella at Clapham was not the bed of roses she might have anticipated. Handed the script, she learned her part as principal boy and was disappointed that it contained only three rather indifferent songs. And she was not thrilled with her costumes. It gradually became apparent to her that both the management of the theatre and her performing colleagues regarded her as an untried beginner―a potential dud―and worked effectively to sideline her. In the event, of course, she was triumphant and over time she was given more and better songs and dialogue.

The last year of the century continued the pattern for Florrie. Cinderella at Clapham closed early in February, followed by a week at the Lyric in Dublin, ‘storming all hearts’, her debut in Ireland. Did she make play of her (part) Irish ancestry there?

Then came four months in London, playing at most of the top music hall venues with the greatest stars of the day. First came the Collins, the Metropolitan and the London at Shoreditch, then the Tivoli, the Canterbury and the Paragon, and finally the London Pavilion, the Oxford and the South London―she was back to where she had started. The Era reported of Florrie at the Pavilion that she ‘proclaims in song her intention of becoming a society lady.’ Some hope! Regular co-performers on her bills were Dan Leno, George Robey, G.H. Chirgwin and Bransby Williams.

And on 9 May 1899 a special performance was given at the Oxford to greet the touring Australian cricketers – with Alma Obrey, Florence Esdaile, Billie Barlow and Florrie all performing.¹⁸ The St James’s Gazettereported: ‘… as a mark of honour most of the performers wore the Australian colours―green and old gold.’

From July to early October Florrie returned to a demanding weekly regime through Moss’s northern circuit of Empire Theatres―Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, South Shields, Leeds, Hull, Bradford, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester.

However, in October 1899 the Boer War broke out in South Africa and music hall programs were adapted to reflect patriotic priorities―sometimes with the inclusion of a recitation of Kipling’s specially written poem, ‘The Absent-Minded Beggar’.¹⁹  Florrie was now back in London at her usual venues, before starting rehearsal in December for her next pantomime―Cinderella again, but this time at the Grand in Newcastle.

In December, Edward Moss and Oswald Stoll merged their chains of theatres, many of them at that time outside of London, forming a virtual monopoly of regional music halls and its emerging mutation, ‘variety’. Stoll was to run the business, Moss Empires Ltd, which in time expanded its London presence and overall had more than 50 venues.

To be continued...

Endnotes

1. I saw the film when it came out in 1969; Oh! What a Cast: Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Jack Hawkins, Corin Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, Nanette Newman, Phyllis Calvert, Edward Fox, Susannah York, John Clements …

2. Lott Flannagan sold his stonemasons business in Williamstown in 1872, taking the United Service Club Hotel in Gertrude Street Fitzroy with its ten rooms; he had been declared insolvent in 1869 and was again in 1882, by which time he was lessee/publican at the United Service Club Hotel at Castlereagh Street in Sydney

3. Table Talk (Melbourne), 12 February 1903, p.14

4. The Royal Australian Navy only became independent from the Royal Navy in 1901 (the year of federation)

5. It has been estimated that in 1875 there were 375 music halls in London and 384 in the rest of England; in 1888 there were 473 in London

6. The managing director at the Polytechnic was John Saville Smith, who had previously been the husband and manager of soprano Frances Saville; she took his name, having been Frances Simonsen

7. A likely candidate is another beginner on the halls, contralto Carrie Ford

8. On the same bill at Chowder Bay was the ‘serio-comic’ singer Alma Obrey (and husband Bob Baxter), who was to reappear frequently with Florrie in Australia and Britain; Obrey had arrived in Melbourne from London in late 1889 and returned to London in 1896

9. Was Phoebe pregnant again?

10. Florrie revealed her role in Randolph the Reckless in a brief memoir in The People’s Journal, 21 March 1914; the epithet was later used to characterise the Australian writer Randolph Bedford

11. Perhaps Florrie suspected that Bew’s former wife Eleanor Jane Rogers from 1882 (Harrison, p.11) was still alive?

12. This writer saw Marie Lohr as Lady Bracknell in Half in Earnest at the Belgrade, Coventry in 1958

13. ‘When London Calls’ by Victor Daley: first published by The Bulletin, 8 December 1900

14. Another Antipodean who appeared in Britain with Florrie was New Zealand-born siffleur (whistler) Borneo Gardiner

15. Currently home to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

16. Harriet Vernon was a veteran music hall and pantomime artist, famous for her figure in tights

17. Or was she Langtry’s fake music hall double?

18. 1899 was the first cricket tour of England by Australia to include five test matches; the Australian team included Victor Trumper (his test debut), while for England the first test at Trent Bridge saw the last appearance of W.G. Grace and the first of Wilfred Rhodes

19. ‘The Absent-Minded Beggar’ was written by Kipling in October 1899 as a patriotic piece with the specific aim of raising funds for British soldiers and their families.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks (for help of various kinds) to Christine Davies and colleagues (Templeman Library, University of Kent), Elisabeth Kumm, Tony Locantro, Tony Martin-Jones, Penelope Upward, Sophie Wilson